Utilization of the Internet for ordering products, subscriptions to e-zines, opening accounts, etc., has become immensely popular for people all over the world. This popularity is due, in great measure, to the tremendous productivity and efficiency improvements afforded by electronic processes over the paper application process. Users employ web browsers to “surf” the Internet and find web sites of interest. A web browser uses HTTP—the HyperText Transfer Protocol to communicate over the Internet, while HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is used to create web pages on the Internet and present users with electronic forms (e-form).
However, a very inefficient and irritating process remains in this new electronic world that is not addressed properly by current technology. Every time a user is requested to supply information on the Internet or on commercial software application programs, she is either forced to manually type in all applicable portions of the electronic form (e-form) or she is forced to compromise privacy, security and efficiency, by giving up the control of her personal information. FIG. 1 represents a typical e-form 10 and various input fields 12, 14, 16 needing to be manually entered by a user.
Typically, a web designer creates the input fields 12, 14, 16 on an e-form with HTML statements like:                <INPUT TYPE=SIZE=NAME=>A statement such as this is interpreted by the browser to be an input field that needs to be filled in by the user. FIG. 2 represents the HTML statements 22, 24, 26 utilized to create the corresponding input fields 12, 14, 16 of FIG. 1.        
More and more web sites require users to fill out e-forms in order to download trial programs, access information, subscribe to some service or order a product. This is not surprising in that web sites are frequently utilized to obtain information from potential customers visiting their site. Frequently web sites are designed to provide something of value, but only if information about the customer is collected.
This results in a great deal of wasted time and inconvenience as users have to repeatedly enter their names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, zip codes, income, age, credit card, etc. Not only is this wasteful of the users time, but it is also harmful to businesses because many times the user will elect to leave a web site because of the irritation of continually having to retype this same information over and over again.
Existing solutions to this problem do not provide complete privacy, security and efficiency. For example, some conventional implementations require a user to give up a portion of his display screen to be used by an additional toolbar.
Second, the personal information which is entered by the user, is transmitted over the network to a web site and stored in their respective servers. This personal information is subjected to misuse by a third party. The users are asked to simply trust the web site in the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information.
Third, conventional implementations are interpretive and inaccurate. For example, eCode.Com tries to fill-in the forms by matching the “NAME=” attribute of the INPUT HTML tag associated with an input field with the personal information previously stored in their servers. If an e-form uses the “NAME=” attribute with any fieldname that eCode.Com does not recognize, the field does not get filled in. For example, if an e-form uses the HTML statement <INPUT TYPE=“text” SIZE=“50” NAME=“firstname”>, eCode.Com's AutoFill will not be able to recognize that the NAME=“firstname” is a field name for the user's first name. The field associated with this INPUT tag will be left blank because eCode.Com's AutoFill was expecting NAME=“Name” for the user's name field instead.
Finally, conventional implementations only fill in a limited number of input fields in e-forms because they are limited by the personal information that they ask the users to provide during set up. Although this personal information can be modified by the user, no new personal information can be added to the personal information already stored.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for automatically completing e-forms without compromising users' privacy, security and efficiency concerns. The present invention addresses such a need.